


Keep the Coffee Coming

by kultiras



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Professions, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, No Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-18
Updated: 2014-01-18
Packaged: 2018-01-09 01:59:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1140107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kultiras/pseuds/kultiras
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As everyone at Stark Industries prepares for the new Stark Expo, they turn to a local coffee shop—Hawkeye's Perfect Shot—for the caffeine fix they need to keep them going. With a lot of coffee, a timely warning, and a much needed intervention, they may just make it through the final week of preparations.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Keep the Coffee Coming

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nerdwegian](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdwegian/gifts).



> Written for Nerdwegian. I tried to blend a lot of the things you asked for into one story, and I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> Many thanks to msraven for not only betaing this story, but for helping me figure out what was missing. Thank you for all of the support and encouragement. 
> 
> And also thank you so much to feelschat for the cheerleading and support.

Though there was no shortage of coffee shops in the immediate area, Hawkeye’s Perfect Shot, owned and run by the Barton brothers, was a popular one. It was known for its quick service, reasonable prices, and some of the best coffee to be found in New York. Typically, mornings were always busy at Hawkeye’s; they had their regular customers, as well as their own share of tourists, and passers-by who stopped in on their way to check out Avengers Tower in hopes of seeing one of the famed superheroes. Thanks to all of that, the coffee shop was doing quite well, and Clint and Barney had already begun plans on expanding the business.

But all of that was irrelevant, because this wasn’t just any typical day. No, this particular Friday morning just so happened to be exactly one week before Tony Stark and Pepper Potts presented the grand opening of Stark Expo 2014. Even without taking into account that it was the first Stark Expo since the somewhat disastrous 2010 Expo, this was bound to be a huge event. Stark Expo 2014 was the first Stark Industries event open to the public since the Battle of New York, since Tony’s run-in with the Mandarin, and the first Expo that he and Pepper were officially co-hosting. The event had to go off without a hitch this time, or there could be serious ramifications for the company, its CEO, and its owner/resident superhero.

Of course, Clint wasn’t supposed to know about that last bit. He only knew how important Stark Expo really was because of his husband, Phil Coulson. As Pepper Potts’ personal assistant, Phil was working around the clock on the Expo, just like his boss. Though Phil normally kept his work away from home, bit by bit, his work had intruded, courtesy of the late nights Phil spent sending emails, falling asleep with his cell phone and/or tablet in hand, and even that one night that Phil got out of bed at 3am because he remembered he forgot to tell Pepper something.

After a couple weeks of both Phil’s crazy work schedule, and listening to some of Stark’s employees talking when they came in for coffee, Clint had figured out quite a lot about how Stark Expo was planning on surpassing the past Expos in grandeur and brilliance.

Because he saw Phil and the other Stark Industries employees mainlining coffee more and more as the Expo’s launch date got closer and closer, Clint increased his inventory orders for the coffee shop in preparation for the final week leading into the opening night. That turned out to be a smart decision, as his shop became the primary destination for S.I. employees in need of a caffeine fix. With each day that passed, business at the coffee shop got busier and more chaotic.

To Clint, it felt like the days went by in a blur of S.I. workers running in and out of the coffee shop carrying as many to-go cups as they could. Or in the case of Grant Ward who made the major departmental coffee runs, as many Barista Boxes as he could fit in his car. The boxes were a recent addition to Hawkeye’s menu, but were quickly becoming one of their best-sellers. The idea to sell coffee in ready-to-go boxes would never have occurred to Clint or Barney, but thanks to a recommendation from Phil’s friend Jasper, the SHIELD liaison to Stark Industries, they started selling them in time for the last week of manic coffee consumption.

Thanks to all of the advance warning, and their hurried preparations and inventory changes, Clint, Barney, and their employees were as ready as they could be for the week leading up to Stark Expo 2014. Today, the biggest surprise was that the morning rush went off without a hitch. They had been slammed with more customers than usual, and even their regulars seemed more stressed out than usual. 

Skye, one of the social media coordinators who worked for Phil, was so stressed and distracted by whatever she was updating on her tablet, that she was three steps out the door before she realized she’d walked out without grabbing the rest of the drinks in her order.

When Melinda May finally made it into Hawkeye’s around lunchtime, Barney took one look at her and started getting her drink ready before she could even get to the counter to place her order. When she got to the counter, she glared at Clint.

“Hey, Melinda,” Clint said. “Barney’s already working on something for you, but what can I—”

“This is all your husband’s fault,” she said, cutting him off.

“What? How? Everything Phil’s been working on is supposed to help with kicking off the Expo,” Clint said.

“Not that. It’s his fault that I’m even working there, remember?” Melinda asked.

Clint winced at the reminder. “In his defense, he had no idea there’d be another Expo when he recommended the position to you.”

“Stark Industries, Melinda, it’ll be a nice change, Melinda. We can work together again, he said. No one will be trying to kill us, and the work will be easy,” Melinda said mockingly. “It. Is. All. His. Fault.”

She paused, about to continue complaining, but Barney took the opportunity to shove a double-shot of espresso in her hands. “Double-shot,” he said quickly. “What else would you like, Melinda?”

“You do realize I didn’t actually order this, right?”

“You need it,” Clint replied.

“It’s on us,” Barney added.

Melinda took a sip of her espresso, and they watched as some of the tension seemed to leave her body. She looked back up at Clint, no longer glaring at him. “Thanks, guys,” she said. She drank some more espresso then asked, “Can I get an Americano with a double shot added?”

“Sure thing,” Barney said, walking off to make it, leaving Clint to ring up her coffee.

“Just hang in there Melinda. There’s only one more week of this to go,” Clint said as he took her money and handed her back her change. “One more week, and then the Expo will finally be open.”

“Exactly,” she replied. “A whole week to go. And if Stark keeps throwing changes at everyone, someone’s going to snap.” She leaned across the counter and quietly said, “I hear the Wonder Twins in R&D have a tranquilizer gun they’re dying to test out.”

“Seriously?” Clint asked in disbelief. “Things are that bad right now?”

“Not quite bad enough that the bio-chem crowd are researching ways to make caffeine injectable, but bad enough that they may just stage a mutiny,” she said. “Thanks,” she said, as Barney handed over her coffee. “Can you please just warn Phil? I’m not sure how much longer my department can keep them calm. We need Pepper to intervene before we reach a breaking point, Clint.”

“Yeah, definitely. I’ll tell him today, Melinda.”

“Thanks. And thanks for the coffee,” she said, finishing up the last of her espresso before heading out the door.

“Wow,” Barney said as the door closed behind her.

“Mmhm,” Clint replied.

“I’m so glad we don’t actually work for Stark.”

“You said it.”

"You going to tell Phil about what May said?" Barney asked.

"Yeah, I'll give him a call and ask if I can come see him and Pepper if possible. Talking to both of them at once would be easier. Knowing them, they'll have the same questions for me anyway," Clint said.

"Go make your call before we get slammed again."

Clint nodded and went into the back office to call his husband. He just hoped that Phil would have enough spare time to see him. The phone barely had time to ring twice before Phil answered.

_"Hello?"_

"Hey, Phil," Clint said, "Got a minute?"

_"Clint! You have no idea how good it is to hear your voice right now."_

"Awww, it's good to hear you too. I missed you this morning. What time did you leave?"

_"Early. I'm still not convinced that 4am counts as morning though, since I only managed to fall asleep after midnight in the first place."_

"I am going to be so happy when all of this is over and you can actually come home at a normal time, eat dinner with me and actually sleep for more than a couple hours a night," Clint told him. 

_"That sounds like heaven to me. That and coffee."_

"Oh! That reminds me, I want to talk to you about something. Well you and Pepper, really. Can I come over in a bit?" Clint asked. "I'll bring coffee with me," he added teasingly.

_"Clint, you don't need to bribe me with coffee, I always want to see you. Unfortunately, Pepper and I are leaving in ten minutes for a meeting to finalize security plans for the Expo."_

"Damn. And we'll probably be busy over here by the time you're free again," Clint said.

_"Probably, but you know what? Pepper and I will likely be desperate for a break from Expo planning, so how about we come to you instead? Sound good?"_

"Sounds perfect," Clint said, smiling even though Phil couldn't see him. "I should get back out there and help Barney, but I can't wait to see you."

_"Same here. Love you."_

"Love you too, Phil."

After Clint ended the call, he took a moment to grab something to eat, and headed back out to help his brother.

"Heading over to S.I. soon?" Barney asked.

"Nah, Phil's got a meeting, so he and Pepper'll come by after," Clint replied. He grabbed the next drink order and got back to work. 

The two of them stayed busy working until mid-afternoon, when business started to pick up again. By then, Kate had joined them, taking over cash register duties while he and Barney handled the drink orders. The shop was mostly empty by the time Phil came in looking completely exhausted, at a little before 4pm. He left his order with Kate and waited for Clint to make it and bring it to him before he pulled him in for a short kiss.

When he pulled away, he didn’t move very far; he just let his head fall forward onto Clint’s shoulder with a thunk.

“Long day?” Clint asked him. He wrapped his arms around Phil, content to just hold him close after barely seeing him over the past few days. 

“And still going. How’s it been over here?”

“Busy, but not bad. We were ready for it at least,” Clint said. “By the way, remind me to give you something for Melinda before you leave. And when she asks, it was from you, not me.”

“Well that doesn’t sound ominous at all,” Phil said as he finally took a drink of his coffee.

“What sounds ominous? I don’t like ominous right now, Phil,” Pepper said as she walked through the door.

“Clint’s going to give me something to give to Melinda from me, and I don’t know why,” Phil replied.

“What can we get you?” Kate asked Pepper.

“Can I get a zebra mocha? I just really want sugar and caffeine right now,” Pepper said.

“Ooh, nice choice!” Kate said, as Barney started making the coffee, putting the two kinds of chocolate in the cup. “And I’m guessing you’re giving Melinda something because you owe her for dragging her into this pre-Expo chaos without any warning,” she said, glancing at Phil.

“It’s not my—” Phil began.

Clint cut him off by saying, “Phil…”

“Alright, it may be my fault, but in my defense, I had no warning about Stark Expo either,” he said, side-eyeing Pepper.

“What, like I knew this was going to happen? Even I didn’t think we’d be hosting another Expo, Phil,” she said, taking a sip of her drink. “One moment we were talking over dinner, and in the next, Tony, JARVIS and I were making plans for the Expo.”

“Oh! Speaking of plans, I have a message to pass on to you,” Clint said. “Your employees would like you to stage an intervention on their behalf.”

“An intervention?” Pepper asked in surprise.

“Melinda?” Phil asked.

“Yes and yes, but she isn’t the only one begging for a change. She’s just the only one who’s asked me to try and do something about it,” Clint replied.

He looked from Phil to Pepper and continued, “If Mr. Stark keeps changing his plans, your employees are going to crack. The word “mutiny” has been mentioned, as has the word “strike,” neither of which are words you want to hear right now.”

“Not to mention Fitz and Simmons are still looking for a human test subject for their tranq gun,” Kate piped up.

“How did you…you weren’t even here when Melinda told us about that!” Barney exclaimed.

“No, but I heard Fitz and Simmons complaining about it yesterday to some of the R&D guys,” Kate said. “Anyway, the point is, make him stop, Boss-Lady, or bad things will probably happen."

Pepper sighed and said, “Why am I not surprised by any of this?” She looked at Phil, “Are you surprised?”

“I’m not surprised that Stark’s driving everyone crazy. But I am concerned by how much the S.I. employees are discussing classified work in public, since these three have apparently figured out about Fitz-Simmons’ work.” He looked at Clint and the others and asked, “What else do you all know about?”

“Nothing,” Barney replied.

“Not much else,” Kate said.

“I absolutely don’t know anything else about the Expo. I especially don’t know about any shiny tech stuff that Mr. Stark’s presenting that may or may not be straight out of Howard Stark’s presentation in the ‘40s,” Clint replied with a grin.

Kate and Barney stared at him in surprise, while Phil and Pepper shared the same look of horror.

“Dammit, Hawkeye, stop hoarding the good gossip,” Kate said, punching him in the arm.

“I’m just going to pretend I didn’t hear any of that,” Phil said, still looking alarmed. 

Clint leaned in and gave him a quick kiss. “Sorry, but everyone from S.I. walks in and starts venting or bragging these days. That’s why something needs to be done before they crack.”

Phil pulled him back in for another kiss and squeezed his hand as he pulled away. “I know, but it’s such a disastrous breach of contract. We’ll have to figure out some way to deal with it.”

“Not today though, Phil. We have enough to deal with right now,” Pepper said. “For now, I will handle Tony. I was planning on having this conversation with him in a couple days anyway, moving it earlier in order to help everyone else is fine with me,” she said.

“Better you than me,” Phil replied with a small smirk.

“Hush, you,” Pepper said, pretending to glare at Phil. “Hopefully that will clear up the majority of the issues that my employees are having, but to help with that,” she said, trailing off as she reached into her purse, “Take this.” She handed a card to Clint.

When he looked at it, he realized it was one of Tony Stark’s personal credit cards. He looked back at Pepper in surprise. “Holy shit.”

She smiled back at him. “Do whatever you need to in order to keep them sane, caffeinated, and preferably non-homicidal. We need them to be okay in order to pull off the Expo,” Pepper explained. “So hopefully between Tony covering the coffee bills, and me preventing him from making any major changes to the Expo plans, everything will work out just fine.”

Pepper finished off her coffee, threw the cup in the trash and headed for the door. “Ready to get back to work, Phil?”

“Yeah,” Phil replied as he finished off his coffee.

“I’ll see you at home?” Clint asked Phil quietly, squeezing his hand that he still held in his.

“Definitely. I’ll be home much earlier today. It'll be nice to have dinner together for a change,” Phil replied with a smile. "I know we haven't had a lot of time together lately, and I'm so sorry about that. Thank you for being so understanding about all of the extra work, and long hours. I know dinner together isn't much compared to all of this craziness, but I'll make it up to you," he said.

One quick kiss later, and Phil followed Pepper out the door, back on their way to Stark Industries. Clint, Barney and Kate got back to work at the coffee shop, cleaning up and preparing for the next wave of customers.

*~*~*

One week later, the employees were exhausted and still running on a caffeine high, the preparations were complete, and the opening ceremony of Stark Expo 2014 was underway. The Stark Industries employees never did attempt a mutiny, and the tranquilizer gun in R&D never got a test run. Even though things were touch and go for a few days at the company, with Pepper and Phil handling Tony and the logistics of the event, respectively, things remained on track. And when the Expo finally opened, Clint found himself standing in the audience with Phil, listening to Tony Stark's opening speech. 

“In 1943, my father introduced the world to the idea that a flying car could become a reality, that it could be something that exists in real life. I’m sure many of you have seen the footage of that presentation, and Captain America claims he saw that disaster in person,” Tony said with a laugh. “It didn’t work out that well for my dad at the time, but this is the future. What I’m about to show you is the next phase in the evolution of that invention. We’re not ready for everyone to switch to flying cars, and quite frankly, I’m not sure I want to deal with swerving around all of you when I’m flying in my suit,” he said.

The audience chuckled in reply, and Tony grinned before continuing, “But for now, have a look at my version of dad’s creation, an actual, fully operational, flying car.” As he spoke, the red Corvette behind him came to life, engine rumbling. As the audience watched, repulsors kicked on and the car lifted smoothly into the air, hovering behind Tony.

As they watched Stark demonstrating the capabilities of the flying car, Clint leaned over and whispered to Phil, “What are the odds that you can negotiate one of those cars into your year-end bonus?”

Phil grinned back at him, “Hypothetically speaking, if that were at all an option, then it’s possible that Pepper and Fury would have already okayed it.”

Clint pulled back from him and raised an eyebrow. “Fury?”

“Officially, SHIELD gets the car. It’s too risky to let that technology out into the world for general public consumption, but it’s also too valuable to ignore the benefits that it could provide in the event of another alien attack or similar disaster,” Phil explained.

“So generally speaking, SHIELD will effectively have jurisdiction over the cars. However, due to the potential threats to Pepper and even Tony, it may have already been decided that there should be at least one flying car readily available at locations where they spend a great deal of time,” Phil said, “And after everything that I gained clearance to during the clean-up efforts here in New York, I already have the necessary clearance levels required to have access to such a vehicle.”

Clint smiled back at him then turned back to the presentation before them. He looked back at Phil for a moment, opened his mouth as if to say something, then shook his head and focused on the presentation again. 

Seconds later, Phil was nudging him with his shoulder. A quick glance at his husband revealed that Phil was looking at him with a slightly concerned expression, head tilted slightly in question.

Clint shook his head, trying to convey that it was nothing serious, but that just made Phil nudge him more incessantly.

With a huff of laughter, Clint finally turned back to him properly and whispered, “You know Pepper spends a lot of time at the coffee shop too, right? Not as much as you do, but usually I still see her a couple times a week.”

“I know,” Phil replied quietly.

“So, do I get a flying car?”

“No.”

“Awwwww, flying car,” Clint replied sadly.

He was surprised when Phil leaned over and kissed him in response. Clint had just started to kiss him back when Phil broke the kiss and asked him, “How do you feel about a flying motorcycle?”

“I love you,” Clint replied, grinning uncontrollably at his husband.

“I know,” Phil replied with an answering grin.

**Author's Note:**

> [Barista Box/Box of Coffee to go](http://www.imprintitems.com/sitewide/images/prod/0_drinkware_coffee_-_shop_coffee_-_to_-_go_-_bladder_-_box_sm.jpg)
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Also fits the "AU: Alternate Professions" square on my [](http://trope-bingo.dreamwidth.org/profile)[](http://trope-bingo.dreamwidth.org/)**trope_bingo** card.


End file.
